Bringing colour to a sombre tale: Simon Boccanegra

By Alan Yu, 29 February 2016

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Reviewed at Hong Kong Cultural Centre: Grand Theatre, Hong Kong on 28 February 2016

Verdi, Simon Boccanegra

Teatro Regio di Torino

Roberto Abbado, Conductor

Sylvano Bussotti, Director

Roberto Frontali, Simon Boccanegra

Michele Pertusi, Jacopo Fiesco

Erika Grimaldi, Amelia Grimaldi

Giorgio Berrugi, Gabriele Adorno

Vittorio Borrelli, Revival Director

Coro del Teatro Regio di Torino

Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino

Riccardo Muti triumphs with Un ballo in maschera in Turin

Laura Servidei, 23rd February

The Teatro Regio di Torino presents Andrea de Rosa's new production of Verdi’s operal, with a solid cast under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

***11

The Pearl Fishers: Turin opens its operatic season

Renato Verga, 3rd October

The staging sways between tackiness and naivety, like those old Christmas cards with sequins glued to the edges of the figures.

**111

The first modern staged performance of Paër’s Agnese in Turin

Laura Servidei, 17th March

The Teatro Regio presents a Classical rarity with echoes of Mozart and anticipations of Rossini. Diego Fasolis conducts with imagination and spunk.

***11

In Turin's Trovatore, the women carry the day

Renato Verga, 10th October

Female voices dominate in the vocal cast: Rachel Willis-Sørensen debuts as Leonora and charms the audience; Anna Maria Chiuri has the temperament and rich vocality requested by the role of the gypsy.

***11

A strong Italian cast for Così fan tutte in Turin

Laura Servidei, 1st July

Diego Fasolis gives an enlightened, 18th-century account of the Mozart/da Ponte masterpiece, with great precision and elegance.

****1

On the female condition: two 20th-century operas in Turin

Renato Verga, 16th May

Two different variations of the female conditions: one of 1909 and now utterly out-of-date, the second of 1959 much more ut-to-date.

****1

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Alan Yu

The first concert Alan attended was Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. For 7 years he presented classical music programmes for Radio Television Hong Kong, partly to pay his way through university. He attends concerts whenever he can and believes there is no substitute for the thrill of live performances. He writes here.

Bringing colour to a sombre tale: Simon Boccanegra at the Hong Kong Arts Festival